Vice President Kamala Harris, who took over as White House gun czar last year, spearheaded the administration's push to close the so-called gun show loophole, requiring background checks on private sales at gun shows. But archived footage shows Harris fought for even more drastic measures as San Francisco district attorney. She wanted to ban gun shows altogether.
In August 2007, Harris held a San Francisco press conference to promote a state bill to ban gun shows at the Cow Palace, a popular indoor arena owned by the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Flanked by then-mayor Gavin Newsom, Harris said there was an "absolute and direct connection" between gun shows at Cow Palace and "San Franciscans…dying in the streets."
"This place behind us, the Cow Palace, is basically state property that is allowing the state of California to be a merchant in selling tools of death," said Harris. A month earlier, she had successfully pushed for a ban on gun shows held on city and county property.
"We are here to say that we want the Cow Palace to shut down these gun shows because the legal sale of guns in this place is resulting in murder in the streets of San Francisco."
Harris has not called to ban gun shows held at private venues, but her rhetoric about the popular events could reinforce concerns about Harris’s gun control record. "Gun owners should understand that Harris poses the gravest threat to their Second Amendment rights," the National Rifle Association said of Harris.
Harris took over last year as head of the White House Task Force on Gun Violence, a role some conservatives have labeled "gun czar." In April, Harris announced a rule to close the "gun show loophole," which she called "one of the biggest gaps in the federal background check system." Licensed firearm dealers are already required to perform background checks, whether the sale occurs at a gun show or elsewhere.
"We’ve been talking about it for years," said Harris, who cited her work on the issue as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general. Harris, who insisted she was "in favor of the Second Amendment," didn’t mention her opposition to gun shows.
Harris first supported a ban on Cow Palace gun shows in May 2004, according to news reports at the time. In July 2007, she and Newsom, now California governor, spearheaded a bill to restrict gun shows on city and county property in San Francisco as part of a broader gun control agenda that barred gun possession on city and county properties and required lock boxes for all privately owned firearms. Then-state assemblyman Mark Leno introduced a bill the following month to ban shows at Cow Palace, which hosts around five or six shows each year at its arena, which straddles San Francisco County and San Mateo County.
"What we’ve got is the state being involved in the distribution and sales of guns, and I think it’s time that the state got out of that business," said Harris, who quipped: "Let’s have some cows out here."
An organizer of one of the gun shows held at the Cow Palace told news outlets in 2007 that in the 23 years he had organized the events, nobody had ever been arrested or charged for illegal firearm transactions.
"It's distressing when politicians, for their own ends, make charges like these. These are simply allegations made by people who don't like guns," said Bob Templeton, the owner of Crossroads of the West Gun Show.
The Cow Palace bill failed in the state assembly in 2007. A similar measure passed in 2009, only to be vetoed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R.). His successor, Jerry Brown, a liberal Democrat, vetoed a similar bill in 2013.
Harris never produced evidence linking the Cow Palace shows to gun crimes in San Francisco. She admitted during her press conference that no solid proof existed, relying only on anecdotal evidence from local residents who believed guns purchased legally at the arena were being sold illegally in a nearby housing project.
"We know the stories, we have heard them, we know them. Everyone on the streets knows this," said Harris. "We don’t need to have a camera to follow the sale. We know it’s happening, it’s been happening for years."